Monday, June 3, 2013

Easy Strawberry and Cream Pie

Summer...

It's almost here. Sweet summertime. How about a lightened up pie to help celebrate it's arrival this month?

Strawberries have just been outstanding the past couple of weeks. This easy pie is the perfect way to serve them. The only baking required for this pie is the the crust for 8-10 minutes. If you choose to use a pre-made reduced fat graham cracker crust, you can eliminate turning the oven on at all. (Nutrition information provided calculated using the crust as listed in the ingredients below. Using another crust may change values.)

The "cream" layer is a combination of reduced fat cream cheese, some sugar, lemon juice and Cool Whip Free®. It is then topped with fresh strawberries mixed in a store bought glaze. You can usually find the glaze in the produce section by the strawberries of your grocers. I used Marzetti® brand and that is what the nutritional information provided is calculated with. Super easy and super delicious.

Make sure you cool your pie crust completely before filling it and refrigerate the completed pie for at least an hour before serving.

1. For the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9" pie plate lightly with cooking spray. In a food processor, process the graham crackers into crumbs. Add in the 2 TBS granulated sugar, melted butter and the egg white. Plus a few times to combine ingredients. Press mixture into prepared pie plate, on the bottom and up the sides. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes to "set" the crust. Cool completely before filling.

2. In large bowl, combine the reduced fat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice with electric mixer until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip Free®. Spread over the baked and cooled crust. Top with the fresh strawberries, pressing them slightly into the cream layer. Top with the strawberry glaze. (You may not need to use the entire container) Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving, to allow the cream layer to firm up a bit.

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I made this over the weekend and it was a hit with my family. The strawberry glaze tends to be quite sweet, so I don't put much sugar in the cream layer, but you might need to adjust it to your liking. (of course, nutrition information may change if you do) This pie absolutely screams summer to me and it's just so pretty too!

I had hoped to have a nice, kicked back weekend after all the traveling we have been doing, but on Saturday morning, my MIL fell and broke her hip! So we spend a good chunk of the weekend in the hospital. Good news is, she had successful surgery to repair and, hopefully, will have a short recovery time. She is 86 but a very strong woman. I am hoping her strength and her relatively good health will help her heal quickly. We did manage to get some yard work done yesterday afternoon after we left the hospital. Much needed! I trimmed all the shrubs in the front yard and we are planning on mulching next weekend...if the weather cooperates. I don't even have any annuals in yet...I feel so behind this year, but I guess with all the traveling we have been doing, I have an excuse. The weather hasn't been the most cooperative this year either.

So maybe I can look to next weekend for some kicked back time? (fingers crossed!)

Hope your MIL recovers quickly! This pie looks so delicious. Do you think I could omit the powdered sugar or use regular sugar? I just don't like powdered sugar at all. I have to make this very soon. I can't believe how easy it is too :)

I have everything but the strawberries and those I may just pick up before I get home (from the dr office!). This looks delicious and so quick and easy to put together. Will make a good dinner for me. ;) babying my sick self. lol